 Terrier Club Rescue Forum
shelter needs help
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Kristy
September 01 at 11:34
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shelter needs help
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Date: August 31, 2004
Contact: Teresa Landon
E-mail: ohiospca@columbus.rr.com
Serious Problems Resurface at Pike County Dog Pound
Ohio SPCA Finds Sick and Dying Animals in Filthy Cages as Dog Warden Bars Rescues and Cameras
Columbus, Ohio (August 31, 2004)‹Just two years after the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (then operating as the Ohio Humane Education Association) worked with Pike County commissioners to improve conditions at the county pound, the humane organization says that it has eyewitness reports, photos, and videos showing that dogs there are again being badly mistreated. According to Ohio SPCA Director Teresa Landon, ³This is a very, very serious situation. Animals are suffering terribly and dying unnecessarily painful deaths at this pound every day. It¹s a return to the bad old days when Pike County killed 1490 out of 1500 dogs‹including a great many who could have been placed in loving homes.²
Landon says information her organization has gathered firsthand as well as reports from others indicate that Dog Warden Randy Mustard is leaving dogs without food or water in filthy cages, failing to provide medical care for sick and injured animals, and again killing dogs in a homemade gas box instead of by the quicker and less painful method of lethal injection. Mustard has refused entry to a humane volunteer who has rescued more than 100 dogs from the pound since April and has reportedly barred the use of cameras inside the facility. ³All of this,² says Landon, ³adds up to a disgraceful situation. We urgently need action on behalf of these helpless animals.²
Landon states that ³the most awful cases are always the ones we don¹t get to in time.² She describes a tiny black puppy so ill with mange that he died as a rescuer was taking him to the vet; a young dog with a broken leg left without treatment for days and then apparently killed by the warden shortly before he was to be picked up and taken to a rescue home; a dead puppy left in a kennel with its live litter mates; and an old dog, brought to the pound to be euthanized, who lay for a week in his own excrement, howling and crying with pain and fear. Rescue volunteers photographed the dog lying on his side with his paw inside an empty, rusty soup can that had apparently contained water.
³One of the saddest things,² says Landon, ³is that we had been making progress in Pike County. We thought things were really improving‹until the complaints started coming in again.² Landon¹s group received complaints from members of the public who had visited the pound as well as from SPCA volunteers and representatives from other humane organizations. Landon says the SPCA sent letters, faxes, and e-mails to the county commissioners but received no response. The group then requested the pound records, but Landon says that despite two letters from an SPCA attorney, ³it¹s been months,
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Second part
September 01 at 11:37
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Re: shelter needs help
HELP
and we still haven¹t seen the records.²
According to Landon, the Ohio SPCA is ready to work with Pike County to improve conditions at the pound. ³We¹d like to get things back on track and have a good working relationship with them,² she says. ³These poor animals don¹t need much, and we have plenty of people who are ready and willing to help.²
On behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves, please write, fax, or call the individuals below. Let them know this cruelty must stop immediately! (It is imperative that all correspondence be polite and dignified.)
Contacts:
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Phone 614-466-3555 or 614-644-HELP
You can also send an email to Gov. Taft:
http://governor.ohio.gov/contactinfopage.asp
Waverly is Senate District 17: Senator John Carey Address:
Senate Building
Room #134, Ground Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614/466-8156
email: sd17@mailr.sen.state.oh.us
House District 86: Rep. David Daniels Address:
77 S. High St
11th Floor
Columbus,OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 466-3506
Fax: (614) 644-9494
Email Address: district86@ohr.state.oh.us
Pike County Commissioners
100 East Second Street
County Courthouse
Waverly, OH 45690 -1301
Phone: (740)947-4817
Fax: (740)947-5065
James Brushart Commissioner, President
John Harbert Commissioner
Harry Rider Commissioner
Email: pkcoc@bright.net
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http://www.ohiospca.org
Ohio's Voice for the Animals
P. O. Box 546 Grove City, Ohio 43123
Never, never be afraid to do what's right especially if the well being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
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Pam and pups
 
September 01 at 11:45
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Re: shelter needs help
Why cannot this man simply be fired and prosecuted? What am I missing--in my scanning the article?
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BB Boys
 
September 01 at 15:07
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Re: shelter needs help
Why does he still have a job? Not only should he be fired, but prosecuted as well. Loving, but ignorant pet owners are prosecuted for less. I'm not saying that anyone could do this job, but there has to be someone qualified that also cares.
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Lynda and the Minkies
 
September 01 at 15:39
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Re: shelter needs help
The image of that poor dog laying there crying after being abandoned is just too awful to contemplate.
It's disgusting that after their previous record that more care hasn't been taken to ensure they toe the line.
XXX.
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